european conquest

2 weeks of being vaporised by the summer heat, over three thousand photos captured, having taken in every cultural delight of the countries we visited, and... we've finally arrived home!

we practically travelled like beggers during those fourteen days because everything was just too expensive. almost all public toilets in europe require a 'small' entry fee, and guess how much that cost. you wont believe it... S$3 bucks! gosh, and the distance equivalent of boonlay to jurong east in a cabby ride cost us over S$40 bucks! needless to say, i think you can imagine the prices of food haha. so that should explain the empty bag we returned with, originally intended for souvenirs.

anyhow, it was one awesomeeee experience that i consider myself so blessed to have. of course it didnt come easy with all the sacrifices and 'stinching', but definitely one hell of a worth while trip. the sightseeing and food tasting, totally priceless.

guess it'll take awhile now to come clean of the jet lag, and then its time to snap back to reality, including the fact that i've probably gained a few tons. nnoooo....

mann, i miss europe already. next stop, england babyyy! after much damage control to my piggy bank that is. :)

btw, got all pics uploaded on facebook. sorry folks, too lazy to blog each day out further. :p

the grass is greener on the other side

two full days getting around and to know amsterdam was enough to determine it as surely one of the best places to spend one’s retirement in.

haha, not because of the sleaziness, but well just as a coin as two faces, we were glad to have been able to experience the other side of amsterdam, holland. besides the city, we managed to squeeze in some time to visit the country sides, farms and old towns. and who would have expected, they turned out simply beautiful. vast open lands, friendly old people, and getting in tune with mother nature… definitely the kind of place to spend my golden years. :D

interestingly enough, we found out why the country’s named the netherlands is cause its lands are really nether! flat and below sea level that is. and trying to speak dutch is like trying to spit with your mouth saliva-dried. hahaha, not a language i’d think of picking up anytime soon.

overall, holland appeared to be a pretty laid back country thus her peeps adopting more stress free and easy going lifestyles, which explains the much acceptance of weed, prostitution and drinks. but if there’re the few necessities the dutch can’t live without, they'd be milk, bread and cheese! yep, that’s all they eat for breakfast everyday of their lives. damn, now that’s one reason why i can’t survive over there for long. i’ll turn into a ball… and where’s all the cha kway tiao, kway chap, and o-luah when you need them?! but no offence, i still love you cheeesseeee.

so, before departing the city of diamonds, we made a final return to the city to take in the last remaining breaths of the ‘weed-stained’ air, and attempted some last min shopping which failed, but instead only got ourselves a few bottles of heinekens. whoot, it costs 47¢ a bottle while water’s $1.70! how cool is that mann.

haha, well enough of sin city. tomorrow, germany!

amsterdams's diamonds are cheaper, but doesn't mean she'll get one :)

cityscape

old sleepy town/port

best friend :D

cheese factory!

countryside farm

clogs! ah, i see where crocs originated from

countryside

porn paradise

we departed paris on the brink of first light and continued our european 'conquest' up north-east towards amsterdam, netherlands - 'the sex capital of the world' woohoo! but before that, as you could see on the map, we had to stop over at brussels, belgium to fuel up and stretch that ass. eek. regretfully, also meant emptying my shrinking wallet further. :(

streets of brussels

town hall

black cabs in protest. boy, it was one long protest.

no idea if they were for or against the protestors

some landmark exhibition thingy

a cosy, tranquil and medieval-well-preserved town was the intial impression that brussels gave us. but after some time of roaming around, it would've been inevitable for one not to know what the town was famous for. waffles, chocs, and... the little peeing boy! gosh. its that dude from our primary school cheena textbook!

manikin pis

just looks wrong...

being a mt retard and having to read each chapter probably over a thousand times just to get each character right, how could i have forgotten. haha. its the one in which he spotted a trace of lit gunpower leading to its entire storage, and pee-ed on it that ultimately saved the whole town from being blown up till kingdom come from the enemy's sabotage. haha well yeah, thats him. clothed in a hero's glory till this day with what else but his perpetually flowing pee. lol, what a way to be immortalised.

but pee aside, the chocs and waffles are oommgg, heaven on earth i tell you! godiva, leonidas, pierre marcolini... thats enough to convert any cocoa abstaining idiot to a choco-nivore! sadly, the truffles i bought totally melted to a pool of crap by the time we reached our next hotel. sighh.

check out these waffles mann. (by lippy chiang)

chocolate fountain

godiva!

the greedy pig

by evening, we eventually arrived at our next 'pit-stop - amsterdam! hahaha, this is one hell of an interesting country. beer, porn and marijuana...what more can any man ask for?!! lol. and yep, all legal, cheap and abundant. but despite the sins, you'll be amazed by how really civilized the place is. beer and marijuana are only sold in the classy cafes as good as the CBs and SBs we have back home, not in back alleys or along those sleazy streets. and prostitution here is regarded as highly a profession as any others, that means they pay taxes too.

amsterdam's red light district

canals thru the red light district

cafe selling weed. haha you can ask for them in your brownies or smoke

they were growing weed in the shop can you believe it?! (by lippy chiang)

the methods used in advertising themselves were somewhat amusing. they'd actually be in lingerie and display themselves through glass windows along the streets, ready to turn on any man who walks pass them. but nah, not me. still a 100% faithful to the one beside me then. ;) lol. there was even this granny we saw through the glass, knitting! wth! so much for granny fetish. hahahah. well if you're thinking, it wasn't that we chose to go to such a location. the whole city's very much progressed this way. unavoidable.

it wasn't open yet. but once it was, you'd see the ladies hanging around in each 'cell' through the glass

there they were on the 2nd floor!

after some time of walking through the never ending streets of PORN (sex shops, live shows, prostitutes, etc), we realised our poor eyes needed a break from all the overwhelming visions of colourful sceneries and decided to head back to the hotel. and shit, just when i thought i had enough, the freaking tv's harassing me with even more PORN!!! nooo, it was a family channel not a pay-per-view one for goodness sake. and omg, those advertisements of them in between the programmes are annoyingly long. damn, seriously porn has never been this horrifying!!! no more i swear. /glups.

the 'happiest place on earth'

we decided to spend today at disneyland, since we had managed to cover most of the main attractions in paris yesterday. after all, no money for any luxury shopping in the streets of champs elysees.

so up and about we were, before any of the others did. heading to disneyland via the city trains/trams turned out to be a little tricky, but with some broken french and much prayers, we eventually found our way. though the journey thru the city and suburbs was one hell of a ride, every second on it was well treasured as we embraced the breath-taking sceneries of france's countryside through the little glass window of our carriage.

double-decked train

in de train

scenery

after a good two hours of warming our asses, disneyland it was! sadly, i didn't bring my student card, because with it chanel got S$20 off the crappy S$100 i had to pay for entry fee per person. sheesh. apart from the cost, what more could i say. we're were in the happiest place on earth!

entrance of disneyland!

opening parade

chanel lam in her blue dress

chanel without her make up, and me :D

main street usa, discoveryland, fantasyland, adventureland and frontierland... you could easily spot the singaporeans from a helicopter above as we displayed our singapore spirit of kiasu-ism and chionged for every attraction we could! haha. but now an old man with a weak heart and not getting any younger, i realised i didnt't enjoy taking the extreme rides as much as i did before. but shit, i didn't pay a hundred bucks to miss out on the fun. so by the end of the day, my poor heart had taken a good beating from all the sick loops and mad g-forces. thankfully, no puke :)

mickey and friends lol.

bang bang!

stitch!

space mountain two!

i like this xD

at the way she drives, she's not gonna touch my car anytime soon. :p

princess wanabe. wahaha.

carousel

tea cup

small world

pirates of the caribbean the ride

indiana jones the ride

frankly speaking, euro disneyland didn't turn out too impressive, compared to those in the US and japan. maybe cause it was just much older and its rides weren't very up to date. we only discovered there was another newer and better park - disney studios, beside where we were after having gotten the tics into disneyland, but guessed it was too late. another time perhaps!

cinderella's castle

main street, usa

she burnt a hole in my pocket... :(

nevertheless, chanel had a great time and so did i! a handful of souvenirs and gifts, and off we went back to the city to catch more of night time paris. pizza dinner along champs elysees followed by window shopping. last we heard, the LV stuff here cost easily 47% less than those in singapore. damn, if not for it closed, who knows... i might have gotten something. haha. other than that, nothing fantasic for us to want to buy, and besides the aching legs were taking its toll on us. haha. with the last remaining bits of energy, we strived for one more stop that we had planned to visit - the moulin rouge! which also happened to be in the city's red light district. well, neat stuff we found there. LOL.

champs elysees

dinner!

the original louis vuitton

moulin rouge

cool stuff in there we caught. :D

wei ben's chair

beaten but never in low spirits, we endured through the twenty over metro stops that eventually brought us back to the hotel. whoot, definitely time to retire for the day!